palimpsest

[ pal-imp-sest ]

See synonyms for palimpsest on Thesaurus.com

noun

a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.
something that has a new layer, aspect, or appearance that builds on its past and allows us to see or perceive parts of this past: Most of what we actually see when we view any culture is a historical palimpsest, with traces of former times.Today's towering Romanesque-Gothic structure is a palimpsest, the result of numerous additions and reconstructions.Memory is a palimpsest that is continually being written over, but never perfectly so.

Origin of palimpsest

First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin palimpsēstus, from Greek palímpsēstos “rubbed again” (pálin “again” + psēstós “scraped, rubbed,” past participle of psân “to rub smooth”)

Other words from palimpsest

pal·imp·ses·tic [pal-imp-ses-tik] /ˌpæl ɪmpˈsɛs tɪk/ adjective

Words Nearby palimpsest

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use palimpsest in a sentence

Can you talk about how the palimpsest informs the structure of your novel?
The Thief of Words: Starling Lawrence | Jill Bialosky | October 11, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
In a figurative way, palimpsest refers to an object or place that reflects its own history.
The Thief of Words: Starling Lawrence | Jill Bialosky | October 11, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
Which, in such cases—the act or the utterance, the gesture or the text—is the palimpsest of other?
Why Contemporary Art Matters Now | Bernard-Henri Lévy | June 16, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
The palimpsest of memory recalled with intensest vividness the Christian teachings of his childhood.
The Catacombs of Rome | William Henry Withrow
She longed to penetrate below the surface and decipher the strange palimpsest of human life.
The Daughters of Danaus | Mona Caird

What else than a natural and mighty palimpsest is the human brain?
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 356, June, 1845 | Various
This shows that naturally, and without violent agencies, the human brain is by tendency a palimpsest.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 356, June, 1845 | Various
You know perhaps, masculine reader, better than I can tell you, what is a palimpsest.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 356, June, 1845 | Various

British Dictionary definitions for palimpsest

palimpsest

/ (ˈpælɪmpˌsɛst) /

noun

a manuscript on which two or more successive texts have been written, each one being erased to make room for the next

adjective

(of a text) written on a palimpsest
(of a document) used as a palimpsest

Origin of palimpsest

C17: from Latin palimpsestus parchment cleaned for reuse, from Greek palimpsēstos, from palin again + psēstos rubbed smooth, from psēn to scrape

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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